DARPA's next-generation disposable transmitter
Defense officials imagine a method in which spies could input information into a PDA, print out a tranmitter tag, and stick it to a wall to be read to UAVs
For the most sophisticated of readers: DARPA, citing a “an immediate need for new, simpler means for achieving effective optical communications in battlespace environment,” has announced interest in a handheld communications device that would print out adhesive communications transmitters for use by spies and others in identifying locations for UAVs and guided missile systems. “There is an immediate need for new, simpler means for achieving effective optical communications in battlespace environments,” the agency explained. Part cell phone and part ticker tape, such “self-powered chemical” replicators would “enable warfighters to generate disposable optical transmitters in real-time, each with a user-specified message.”
As imagined by DARPA, the system would work like this: The user would input up to 60 alphanumeric characters, which would then translate them into an “appropriate set of modulated chemistries.” These chemistries would then be embeddded into a disposable substrate capable of power itself, which the handheld device would then eject. Paper or string mediums are imagined, “possibly with an adhesive backing for deployment on all surfaces. Other imagined uses include the identification of friendly forces embedded or trapped in combatant zones, and surveillance.
